How Millennium’s Athlete Wellness Program Supports Athletes

How Millennium’s Athlete Wellness Program Supports Athletes

How do people cope with the challenges of staying at the top of their game while juggling school, family, friends, and a constant stream of pressure? This conversation between Derek and Oren pulls back the curtain on Millennium’s Athlete Wellness Program and how it supports club, high school, college, and professional athletes.

Rather than just telling someone to “practice more” or “try harder”, they talk about why a dip in performance might be connected to anxiety, depression, stress at school, or tension with coaches and team-mates. A striker who can’t finish, a tennis player stuck in a serving slump, or a kid who suddenly can’t get motivated might actually be wrestling with something far away from the pitch or court.

Derek explains that the programme is built around former high-level athletes who are now therapists, so they “understand the nuances of being a high-level athlete” without needing long explanations. They stress that there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all fix: “If you call in and tell me that’s what’s going on with you, and I tell you I have the answer, that’s a problem.

Because I don’t know what that answer is yet.” Instead, they look at the whole person, pick out the most impactful issues, and let the results on the field show whether they’re on the right track. They also point out how stress in youth and college sports has ramped up alongside pressures in school and social life, amplified by social media and higher expectations.

The mental workload can be huge, yet most athletes spend all their time on physical training and almost none on their emotional wellbeing. If you’re an athlete, a parent, or a coach, this chat might get you thinking: what would change if mental training got even a fraction of the time and respect given to physical training?